News

Letters to the Editor: Get ready for the hangover

ON A Sunday morning you learn to pick your way very carefully through the puddles of foul-smelling vomit and urine deposited by binge drinkers (News and Focus, last week). So doesn’t it beggar belief that against this backdrop of moronic behaviour, the government is proposing to pour petrol on this social conflagration already raging out of control by introducing “round-the-clock” licensing hours? The inevitable consequences will be greater profits for brewers, distillers, pub landlords and nightclub owners, increased hours for police in their dangerous and unenviable task of dealing with drunken louts and even greater pressure on hospital A&E departments.

Tony ThornBordon, Hampshire

HEALTH WARNING: Why do we not acknowledge that alcohol is a drug? And why are alcohol-containing substances not required to carry health warnings, similar to tobacco products, in view of the high number of alcohol-related premature deaths? With greater assessment of the economic and social problems